Locations

There is an anomaly field in Darkdolina. They say it creates an artefact everyday. Problem is, no one wants to go there. And before you ask - if you enter Dark Valley, you never come back. Some say it's because of the Monolith and Bandits. Some say it's because of the evil that dwells there. I'd be cautious if I were you.- Random stalker

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Contents

Although the game files allow for some respawning of artifacts in or around ordinary unclustered anomalies, this tends not to be commonplace and is frequently confined to the more 'active' anomalies. Examples being:

The Anomaly Fields are locations that have been specifically scripted into the game to predictably introduce new artifacts into the Zone.

They are frequently composed of all manner of Anomalies in a variety of entertaining combinations.

This combination can result in formidable stalking challenges for the player.

ALL will confer some damage to the player and the worn armour.

Many may be approached without armour being worn, provided sorties are rapid. This will prevent unnecessary suit degradation but is not advised in certain areas.

Any given Anomaly Field has a maximum capacity for the number of artifacts that it may spawn before it becomes 'full' at which stage no spawns take place until all artifacts are removed. Usually this number is one.

Any given field has a specifically placed 'blocking' artifact which prevents further spawns until removed. This may also assist in the identification of similar Fields within a given Level.

Artifact removal restarts the game script timer, the expiration of which causes the Anomaly Field to birth a fresh artifact weighted by the probabilities assigned to the listed artifacts for the particular field.

The artifact spawned is randomized at the time of birthing in a similar manner to that experienced with the portable spawn point, the Artifact Merger. Clearly, this is open to exploitation.

All of the Anomaly Fields have a 100 minute delay before activation.

The artifact spawning is accompanied by a loud audio cue the volume of which is independent of the player's distance from the Field within a given Level. The actual sound type varies, even for spawns of the same type and is not a good indicator of what has been spawned. The audio cue for Fields containing significant Burner populations (Dark Valley 1, Generators 2) is generally 'burner based' which helps with field spawn identification.

In order to prevent exploitation where the player camps out in Cordon waiting for artifacts to drop into his/her hands, the refresh is also inhibited until the player moves to the Garbage, however this is actually the Garbage level in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl making it doubly impossible to activate the Field.

Although most Anomaly Fields may be approached without wearing a suit, sometimes discretion is the better part of exploration.

In order that favourite combat suits are preserved for other, more appropriate encounters, a humble SSP-99 Ecologist suit serves well. It is light, inexpensive to maintain, easily protects against anomalies and has second generation Night vision to enhance and extend search windows.